


The best task (which they created themselves)

by Fan_Feini



Category: Skip Beat!
Genre: AU, F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-03-01
Updated: 2018-03-01
Packaged: 2019-03-25 17:36:22
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,023
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13839684
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Fan_Feini/pseuds/Fan_Feini
Summary: Unfortunately, when Tsuruga Ren started his way in Japanese show business the “Love Me” section did not exist. And what if it did?





	The best task (which they created themselves)

**Author's Note:**

  * A translation of [Лучшее задание (которое они придумали сами)](https://archiveofourown.org/works/5875171) by [Chif](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Chif/pseuds/Chif), [wtfsb16](https://archiveofourown.org/users/wtfsb16/pseuds/wtfsb16). 



> This is my first try to translate something into English. I'm afraid my translation is lacking humor this fic originally had. Besides I'm more of a reader, so the text can be too formal sometimes. If anyone wants to proofread it I'll be glad to cooperate.

When the president told him and this redheaded girl introduced as Mogami Kyouko about his fabulous idea, they both burst out laughing. The “Love Me” section, was it? This could very well be an April Fool’s day joke, not an idea of the century.  
“That’s your only way to become celebrities,” Lory pointed out, having waited through their revelry. “If you try hard and earn enough points, the company which I duly represent will arrange a pompous debut for both.”  
Kyouko brightened up immediately, but Ren was not so easy to fool. His eyes narrowed.  
“And how many points exactly should we get?”  
“That doesn’t matter for now,” Lory brushed him away. “We’ll decide it later–”  
“Now,” said Ren sternly and slapped Kyouko’s hand, outstretched to take a pink notepad. “And we will sign a contract specifying all the conditions.” He glanced sideways at the irrepressible girl and decided today he was benevolent enough. “With this idiot too. We don’t need you screwing over minors.”  
Lory gasped and threw his hands in the air, scandalized by such disrespect. Ren did not budge. Moreover, he was now convinced he should carefully examine the contract for any footnotes, read the fine print and check if anything had been written in the invisible ink.  
That’s how everything started.  
  
***  
  
“What’s this?” Ren frowned doubtfully. A pile of DVDs held out to him seemed innocent enough, but the man giving could not be trusted. After a year in Japan Ren knew this for sure. So he was in no hurry to take the DVDs and slapped Kyouko’s hand to stop her.  
“Movies full of love,” Lory gave a toothy smile. Behind his back Sebastian threw a handful of rose petals in the air, unabashed. One of those drifted down and stuck to Kyouko’s nose. She stood hypnotized as a rabbit in front of a snake.  
“And what should we do with this shit?” Ren took off the petal, frowning harder.  
“I’d like you and Mogami-kun to watch them all and write down your opinion.”  
“Why the hell should we write bloody essays for you?” asked Ren indignantly. Not that he couldn’t master polite Japanese, just when he was angry or disturbed he automatically switched to not so polite Japanese or even to rather obscene English.  
“That’s a task for the Love Me section,” Lory declared. “As far as I know you’ve been fired for getting in the way of the film director, so you’ve got plenty of free time. Do something useful.”  
“Yes, Takarada-san!” eagerly chirped Kyouko, feeling guilty on behalf of them both. “Sorry to cause you so much trouble!”  
Ren sighed. He failed to explain to this goose that it’s fine to negotiate with their slave-driver of a president to improve their conditions. The only option left was to work with what he had.  
Ren pulled a face and took the DVDs.  
“We only have to watch them and write our opinion?” he asked just in case.  
“Only this, yes,” Lory nodded.  
Of course, everything went terribly wrong.  
  
***  
  
“My eyes are bleeding,” Ren decided to share his pain. The story of burning passion between a teacher and his female student made him take a fresh look at his life and priorities. Ren had an overwhelming desire to add “murder whoever was a scriptwriter of this shit” to his checklist for the current decade.  
“How can anyone be so stupid?”Kyouko groaned from behind a pillow she buried her face in. One could think they were watching not a soap opera, but something between a thriller and the most embarrassing film of the year.  
“And she is said to be the smartest in the whole school,” said Ren.  
The groan from behind the pillow grew louder, and he thought it would be better to tell Kyoko not to make such sounds in presence of strangers.  
“Why exactly does he try to save her?” Kyouko stopped self-strangling and straightened. Her face was a perfect display of severe secondhand embarrassment. So what if it was only a movie character!  
“He loves her,” Ran spat out and then added morosely: “I think, president’s selection can make a fine torture for the captive.”  
“Yeah,” agreed Kyouko with a sigh.  
Ren looked back at the TV screen where the teacher had been desperately trying to talk his brain-sick beloved out of jumping from the roof for the past 10 minutes. In his head a revenge plan was corning up. It could also be a great opportunity to create some role, albeit a dumb one.  
  
***  
  
“No, darling, don’t! Just come here, come to my side!” Ren reached out a hand, but Kyouko only shook her head and stepped back. Her fingers clutching the railing turned white, her whole body trembled with unshed tears. Or maybe she didn’t lie about her fear of heights.  
“What the hell are you doing?!” Sawara-san was neck-deep in panic and just about to drown. “Stop this farce at once, d’you hear me? Stop this instant and come down!”  
Kyouko turned to Ren, her eyes lifeless and empty.  
“I can’t live with this, teacher,” she almost whispered. “It hurts too much–”  
“Mogami-kun!” Lory came just on time. “It will be alright, I swear! Someone, take them down!”  
Ren forced himself not to look downwards. No one mattered except her.  
“I promise,” he said, “we’ll overcome everything together. Do you believe me?”  
Kyouko nodded timidly, coming to her senses, took his hand with hers (cold as ice), made a step towards him... and tripped.  
People watching them from below gasped and screamed.  
Ren’s heart beat an uneven staccato, he clutched her hand tightly and pulled the girl up, into his embrace, away from impending death. They collapsed on the floor. Ren held her close, then kissed her temple, buried his face in her shoulder and–  
“No falling from high places next time, ok?” Kyouko pulled back. “Was it any good?”  
“Hard to say. If they’ve called an ambulance already, it was really great,” Ren let her go and grinned. “Thought you won’t dare fall.”  
“Well, you surely are a jerk, but I knew you wouldn’t let me fall for real,” Kyouko smiled.  
Ren felt long forgotten warmth spreading in his chest and shook his head.  
“I’ll kill you brats” Lory promised, towering above them. “I recognized the movie, but I’ll kill you!”  
Ren only shrugged.  
  
***  
  
For their first try Ren chose a scene himself with a clear intention to cause Lory a heart attack. Rules changed with time. They started the game as soon as they met in the morning. One chose a scene, the other had to react according to the script. They took turns until they copied everything of interest and then went on to the next movie.  
It was agreed that there should be no ad-libbing. So to act out a single scene and react immediately to any words they had to memorize the entire script.  
Two months later Ren noticed a crowd in the hall, hungrily watching him come in. Apparently their game became popular among those working in the agency.  
“We met outside,” he said, and people went their ways disappointed.  
Kyouko blinked.  
“What’s up with them?”  
“Hoped for a show,” Ren snorted. “Kids liked it today.”  
Kyouko laughed.  
“At least they guessed what cartoon it was from.”  
It seemed, the pile of DVDs on Ren’s TV stand gradually grew higher. Then one day he bought the most stupid movie in the shop himself and put it among others.  
  
***  
  
“Don’t follow me, please.”  
One glance told Ren he should. There was only one thing that could make him loose his cool entirely – a question about Rick. For Kyouko it was a question about mother’s consent to her working with LME. Ren leaned on a wall one flight of stairs below willing himself not to listen to her whisper. He only needed to know she was alright. When she stated aloud just this, he started walking downstairs. Then he heard Sawara-san’s voice and was hit with something small but heavy. Ren cursed in English, rubbing the top of his head, picked up a blue stone, and then Kyouko knocked him over.  
“Holy crap!” Ren pushed her off. “You want me to break a leg, too?”  
“It was only a minor fracture!” Kyouko protested. Her face quickly clouded, now childish and vulnerable. “I’ve lost Corn!”  
Ren’s heart skipped a beat. Could it be that she–  
“Are you both alive?” asked Sawara-san who had just come downstairs, watching them worriedly.  
“I’ve lost Corn!” Kyouko stood at the verge of tears. “How could I!”  
“Did you give a name to a stone?” Sawara-san wondered.  
“Is it against the rules or something?” Kyoko snapped back, kneeling in search of her precious possession. She didn’t find it and sat on the floor despaired enough to cry her eyes out. “A boy by that name had given it to me even though it was his treasure. And I… I… I lo-o-o-ost it!”  
She sobbed once, twice. Ren couldn’t bear it, so he shoved the stone in her face.  
“This one?”  
Kyouko snatched it from him and smiled with such a relief Ren’s breath caught in his throat for a moment.  
That was her, undoubtedly.  
“Don’t you want to say anything?” he scowled and crossed his arms over his chest. “First you nearly kill me with a stone, then knock me off my feet. Woman, you want me dead or something?”  
Kyouko shook her head violently and then, to Ren’s utter shock, rushed to embrace him.  
“Thanks! Your thick scull saved Corn from death!”  
Ren broke the skin on his lip not to burst out laughing.  
  
***  
  
“Don’t leave, I beg you!”  
He should admit that Kyouko was far better at showing genuine despair than sincere love. There was a slight flaw in their performance, though. They asked Maria to play the part of their daughter, and her snickering didn’t help.  
Ren breathed out, going deeper into his character’s feelings.  
He was now over forty. He had an irremediable disease. He decided to save his family the trouble of watching him die slowly, but his wife and daughter came back earlier than expected and saw a packed suitcase. He’d better hurt her now so she wouldn’t have to suffer later.  
He loved her more than life.  
Ren gritted his teeth so as not to say a word.  
“Please,” Kyouko pleaded quietly. “Will you really leave us? But why? What have I done wrong?”  
“Everything,” replied Ren coldly. Kyouko staggered back for real, Maria clutching to her in terror.  
They froze in place clinging to each other, and Ren lowered his head, lips pressed into a thin line. He didn’t mean to scare them. But where his character had love for his family Ren had nothing but a gaping hole, that’s all.  
“Can you f-forgive me?” Kyouko asked. There definitely wasn’t anything like this in the script.  
Ren looked up and tried to smile.  
“Did I go overboard?”  
Kyouko shook her head.  
“I just wasn’t ready. You made me feel–” She finally came around. “Not fair! You made me feel all that! How can you do such a thing to a living person!”  
Maria snickered again, this time at Kyouko. Ren’s smile became more genuine.  
“Just you wait!” Kyouko wagged a finger at him. “Next time I won’t lose!”  
  
***  
  
“But Mouko-san, we need a third person for the scene. Is it that hard for you?”  
“I refuse,” Kotonami folded her hands across her chest. “It’s not an official task, so I won’t get any points. Don’t drag me into your self-created mess!”  
“But Mo-o-o-o-ouko-san,” Kyouko turned her best puppy eyes at her, but Kotonami proved to be a hard nut. Truth be told, Ren was willing to do anything she asked when Kyouko looked at him like this, now as well as back in childhood. Fortunately, she still had not realized this deadly fact.  
“No,” Kotonami stated.  
“But we won’t manage it without you, and you can easily memorize the script in a minute,” said Kyouko in a flattering tone. “Please, Mouko-san, please-please-please!”  
“No.”  
“But we are friends now, aren’t we?” Kyouko sighed, dejected.  
That was the last straw for Kotonami.  
“Shoot! Ok, I’ll do it.”  
Kyouko bounced happily, while Ren met Kotonami’s eyes and smiled sympathetically. Kyouko was hard to deal with.  
  
***  
  
Ren was decidedly not delighted to get two slaps in the face at once. Kotonami did it only half-steam, but Kyouko, immersed in her role, hit him with full strength.  
“Sorry,” she said tenth time already. “Let’s press something cold to your cheek or you’d get a bruise right before that commercial shoot. Oh God, I ruined your shoot! I’m terribly sorry!”  
Kyouko pulled at his jumpsuit sleeve, her eyes turned at him so wide and overflowing with guilt that Ren got uneasy.  
“Slow down,” he said. “You didn’t ruin anything.”  
“But why–” Kyouko fell silent, sulking.  
“I signed up for this,” reminded Ren. “It was me who chose the scene after all.”  
“But Mouko-san performed that slap as a real actress, and I couldn’t.” She sighed.  
“Everyone believed you, though. Did you hear them gasp?” Ren chuckled. “And this time you won.”  
“What?!” Kyouko gaped at him.  
“I reacted to your slap, not just according to the script. You’ve done great,” he patted her head as if she were a giant utterly surprised puppy. What had gotten into him, actually?  
Long ago, in another life, Rick told him he needed a girl to try improve for her sake as Rick tried hard for Tina, but Ren felt nothing of the kind.  
Well, it might have been because he had such a girl for ages.  
  
***  
  
“Are you insane? First you call, leave a weird voice message and then never pick up. What should I even think?!”  
Ren was annoyed to no end. Acting out Tsuruga Ren was not an easy task as is, and when he got genuinely worried about Kyouko his usual polite demeanor slowly but surely turned into dark and detached. After he got an NG for a third time in a row director Kurosaki gave him back his cell so Ren could phone his “sweetheart”.  
This time Kyouko picked up and couldn’t get away with it.  
“Sorry, Ren,” she said crisply. “I wanted to consult you, but then it came to me you won’t understand. You are a guy after all.”  
Ren’s eyes narrowed.  
“I won’t understand what? Where are you exactly?”  
“I didn’t tell you, because you’d get angry. But something good happened at work and I’m really happy about– Hey! Give it back!”  
“Kyouko?” Ren called out.  
“She’s happy she starred in my music vid,” said a faintly familiar voice. “That’s all good news for today.”  
And the call was disconnected.  
  
***  
  
“Are you still mad?”  
Kyouko had asked him this question innumerable times for the past couple of days.  
“No.”  
“Liar.” She looked away.  
Ren shot her his trademark smile which got people to think he was a good guy. Kyouko, however, flinched and backed away, flailing her arms. Ren heard her murmur something about a demon king and sighed.  
Of course he was mad – at Kyouko for not telling him about that video shoot; at Sho the jerk for… well, for being Sho the jerk who Kyouko adored since childhood.  
Ren gritted his teeth.  
Everything remained as it was back then, only now Kyouko put up with him calling her by name and decided that a person she hated deserved no better. Not that they hated each other these days. Before Ren recognized her as his childhood friend he acknowledged her guts and her stubborn determination to get up after each fall.  
Come to think of it, if him not being mad at her was so important then maybe… they were friends now, weren’t they?  
  
***  
  
“Not in a million years,” said Ren.  
“I’m eternally grateful,” said Kyouko, shining as bright as sun.  
Of course Lory chose a positive reply, spread a long prospect before Kyouko’s eyes and went into details about the chosen high school enthusiastically. Ren crossed his arms in dismal.  
“You are also enrolled,” Lory told him.  
“I have no intention to go to school again,” declared Ren.  
“We have already discussed the matter, so you will.” From Lory’s tone one could easily guess who he discussed the idea with. “Play truant, and you know who will come and turn our life into a living hell.”  
Kyouko blinked uncomprehendingly.  
Ren gave out a heavy sigh.  
His mom was more than capable of it. Worse, she had still been of opinion that he needed regular therapy sessions, not a flight to the other side of the globe with some baby-snatcher.  
“Oh well,” he agreed at last.  
Sebastian, impassive as ever, pulled a string of a party popper, and confetti rained on them.  
  
***  
  
“I hate you!” Kyouko pushed him hard.  
Ren stumbled back, expecting to touch a glass railing, but there were none today. Then he realized he was falling back-first from the third floor and had a clear prospect of death.  
“RE-E-E-EN!” Kyouko’s voice rang in his ears louder than anyone else’s.  
Ren gave a jolt, turned over mid-air and the next instant he was lying on the floor after a series of rolls.  
“Oh fuck,” he tried to move his limbs. “I’m fucking alive.”  
“What the hell are you doing, bastard?” roared Lory right in his ear. “Want me to get a heart attack?”  
“No,” Ren stood up, legs still shaking. “It was an accident. Someone put the railing away. Hah! Courses for stuntmen came in fucking handy!”  
“I’ll tie you up and send home by post,” Lory promised wholeheartedly.  
“Takarada-san!” called Sawara-san. “Mogami-kun is out of sorts.”  
Ren’s head shot up, and he started for the staircase, but Lory took him by the shoulder and lead to the elevator.  
Kyouko sat on the floor shaking, frightened to death and full of guilt.  
“He survived, I’m telling ya,” Sawara-san tried to coax her. “Look!”  
“N-no,” Kyouko hugged herself, shaking violently. “I killed him… I…”  
It felt as if Ren caught a hard kick in his stomach. A year ago he saw the same eyes in the mirror, heard the same words in his own voice. Only Rick was not there to knock some sense into him.  
“Kyouko,” he sat down in front of her.  
“Are you a ghost? Did you come to take revenge?” she asked meekly. “I’m ready.”  
“Your role of a hen fits you well, idiot,” Ren sighed. “Even if I died I wouldn’t come to you for vengeance. It was not your fault.”  
“It was!” Kyouko protested. “I pushed you.”  
“And the one to take away the glass was you, too, wasn’t it?”  
“No,” Kyouko blinked, then asked after a pause: “Are you really a ghost?”  
“You believing in damn fairytales pisses me the fuck off,” said Ren in English.  
Kyouko launched herself at him, not sure to hug or to beat him up.  
  
***  
  
Ren showed up barely in time for the last period. First he heard some girls gossip about Fuwa Sho the almighty descending to this transient school world, then saw Kyouko perform something akin to gymnastic sets. A suspicious girl caught her, and Ren decided to interfere.  
“What’s going on here?” he asked while Kyouko was shoved into a car.  
Fuwa turned to him, pissed, and was about to say something nasty, when Kyouko, to everyone’s utter shock, burst into tears and rushed to Ren who stood rooted to the spot, dumbfounded. But then he heard familiar lines.  
“Baddie did me wro-o-o-o-ong!”  
Ren bent down to hide his laugh. According to the script Kyouko was five, complaining to her much adored older brother. Fuwa knew nothing of the sort, of course.  
“Don’t be afraid, dear,” said Ren. “I’ll fix it. Will you just close your eyes?”  
“Yeah,” she nodded with utmost trust. “Baddie will be hurt?”  
“No,” Ren gave Fuwa an evil smirk, looking him directly in the eye. “Baddie won’t feel a thing.”  
Fuwa, being a chicken he was, immediately jumped into the car. Kyouko sighed her relief, following its departure.  
“Thank you.”  
“Not at all. Just lend me your sheet to cheat during the exam,” Ren offered.  
“Never!” Kyouko looked deeply insulted. “I’d rather tutor you.”  
“You don’t need to.”  
“No, I will!”  
Ren rolled his eyes. Though deep inside he actually didn’t mind.  
  
***  
  
Noticing the Bridge Rock guys openly flirt with Kyouko, Ren did the only thing fit – he chose the right scene. Grinning widely, he turned the girl by her shoulder and kissed square on the lips.  
She jolted, but then recalled they had not yet met today, and slid her warm hand around his neck. Ren was severely tempted to deepen the kiss, however in that case he doubted they could play out the whole scene. And he would most surely get a shiner. After all, it was he who taught her where to hit.  
“Missed me?” he said, his voice suddenly raspy.  
Kyouko shot him a glance of feigned abashment.  
“I miss you, even if you go to another room.”  
The Bridge Rock guys’ faces fell; a shorty in the middle looked as if he was about to cry.  
“I’ll stay by your side forever if you ask,” promised Ren fondly.  
Kyouko smiled and kissed him first, this time almost for real.  
Ren didn’t notice, where the Bridge Rock en bloc vanished to. He pulled away, and Kyouko’s tenderness instantly turned into rage.  
“That was my first kiss, you asshat!” she gave him a well planted winder.  
“That was only a role!” Ren, gasping for breath, managed to catch her hands and hugged the girl tightly to stop her fighting. “It was not a real kiss, got it?”  
Kyouko twitched and wriggled, trying to kick him.  
“Or did you really think I wanted to kiss you?” Ren decided to play a trump card, and Kyouko went still in his arms.“For crying out loud.”  
She jolted once again, hitting his chin with her head, and broke free.  
“I’d be an indescribable idiot if I really want this,” she said with passion.  
It seems, Ren was that idiot.  
  
***  
  
“It looks rather suspicious, you know,” said Kotonami.  
Ren was about to turn the corner, but decided against it. He’d better find out, what mess Kyouko got into this time to think of some way out of it.  
“What?” Kyouko sounded surprised.  
“His behavior,” explained Kotonami. “Looks fishy to me. As if he really has a thing for you.”  
Kyouko laughed, her voice higher than normal.  
“Don’t be silly, Mouko-san!”  
Ren narrowed his eyes, wondering who they were talking about. If they meant that blonde piece of an imbecile, he wouldn’t get away with just a bruise next time.  
“Look,” Kotonami said as if to a child. “Remember the way he treats you and his conduct when Fuwa is involved. What else can be the reason? And just now you told me he kissed you.”  
“He treats me as a friend, nothing more,” Kyouko persisted. “And the kiss was due to the role.”  
Kotonami snorted incredulously.  
“Indeed. Well, I don’t really care, but when he asks you to play newlyweds, don’t say I didn’t warn you.”  
Ren felt his cheeks burning. He turned the corner and shook a fist at Kotonami. She was not mistaken, but that didn’t give her any right to mock him.  
“R-ren!” Kyouko noticed him and flushed beet red. “We weren’t talking about you, honestly!”  
He stiffed a smile with a sigh. Ok, next time he definitely should kick Fuwa’s ass hard. Thanks to this bastard Ren wouldn’t be able to tell Kyouko he liked her any time soon.  
“Couldn’t care less,” he said dismissively. “Will you star in that dorama with me or not?”  
Kyouko beamed.  
“Of course I will!”  
Kotonami snorted to show that in her opinion he hit the rock bottom more than once.  
“Then let’s go, Sawara-san and the director are waiting,” Ren let Kyouko pass and threw a severe look at Kotonami.  
She remained unphased, mouthed “You chicken”, and turned away.  
Ren absolutely agreed. But he had an excuse.  
He was head over heels in love.


End file.
